Nothing Happened
by DFM
Summary: How did they get together? Prequel to HH


Title: Nothing Happened

Author: Devin

Category: SAR

Keywords: R/H, prior character death, Harry angst, Hermione angst

Spoilers: minor OotP

Summary: How did they get together?

Disclaimer: JKR owns and created all of the characters and places in Harry Potter, I just borrowed them.

Author's Note: This is the prequel to HH; I suppose you don't have to have read it but I highly recommend it. Thanks to Wooly for beta reading this for me.

Ron was walking into the library to meet his two best friends. He'd been in the middle of a game of Exploding Snap with Dean and Seamus when Hermione had decided they needed to study. He'd told them to go ahead of him and that he'd catch up in a couple minutes.

As he was reaching to open the door one of his books slipped out from under his arm and all the bits of parchment that had previously been stuffed into its pages fell all over the ground. This was somewhat fortunate because if he hadn't had to step aside to get his papers back in order than Hermione would have ran straight into him as she came running out.

"Hermione?" he called after her, but she didn't turn.

As she continued to escape down the hall he noticed her shoulders shaking with what could have only been repressed sobs.

Worry and anger coursed through him as he went through the door she had just bolted through.

"What happened?"

Harry raised his head from one of the table Ron had found him banging his head against. "Nothing."

"Don't bloody lie to me! What happened to Hermione? Why is she crying and why do you look guilty as hell?"

Harry didn't answer but started putting his things back in his bag.

Frustrated, Ron went off in search of Hermione.

* * *

Finding Hermione was a sight more difficult then Ron had thought it would be. First he got Ginny to check the girls' dorms, later he realized he must have looked mental pacing back and forth in front of the staircase. Ten minutes later Ginny came down and told him that she wasn't up their and that Lavender and Parvati hadn't seen her for a couple hours.

"You want me to check the girls' lavatory too?" Ginny joked.

Ron laughed but as soon as she left he ran to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "Hermione?" he called in tentatively.

"What do you want?" a glum voice, which belonged to a glum ghost, asked.

"Have you seen Hermione?"

"I haven't seen anyone. No one ever comes to see me," she sobbed out.

"Uh, sorry bout that," Ron said awkwardly and quickly exited.

Pausing outside the door to consider his next move and to pull himself together after even being in the same room as a crying girl.

'Than why am I chasing another crying girl?' The answer seemed painfully obvious; it was Hermione who was crying.

So he went on looking.

He checked the Owlery, Astronomy Tower, the Room of Requirement, and even went to see if she'd gone back to the library. He was on his way to check if Dobby had seen her when he literally ran into Professor McGonagall.

"Mr. Weasley, please watch where you're going."

"I'm sorry, Professor. I was just looking for..."

"Miss Granger. She looked pretty upset. What did you two argue about this time?"

"We haven't been arguing," Ron spat in an angrier voice than he should have used with a teacher but then suddenly realized what she'd said. "You've seen Hermione? Where'd she go?"

McGonagall gave him an appraising look. "I believe she was headed to the Quidditch pitch."

"Thank you," he called over his shoulder as he raced towards the field.

Once he got there he spotted her immediately, though it wasn't too hard to notice the lone figure sitting in the bleachers. She would have seen him coming but she was leaning back with her eyes closed, she almost looked asleep.

"Hermione?"

"What is it, Ron?"

She seemed so calm, he could hardly believe this was the same girl that burst out of the library sobbing. "What happened?"

Hermione just shook her head, still not opening her eyes.

"Hermione," he said softly.

"Ron, I need to ask you a question."

Trying not to look too nervous he answered, "Sure," and waited for her to continue.

"Percy's death..." Ron's head shot up, "do you blame me for it?"

"No!" he shouted forcefully. "Is that what Harry said to you?" At that moment Ron didn't if he was the only one who could kill Voldemort, Harry Potter was a dead man for putting that idea in her head.

Ignoring his question she went on. "Really? I would blame me."

He stared at her for a couple seconds before answering. "There's obviously no 'would' about it."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"You obviously blame yourself but what I want to know is if this is a new idea Harry brought up or did he just reinforce an old fear?"

Hermione didn't answer but the slump of her shoulders told him it was the latter.

"Why?" Ron asked softly.

Her eyes snapped open. "Like it's not obvious!"

"Bugger that! It is most certainly not obvious to the rest of us, Ms. 'top-of-every-class'. So you're going to have to explain it to me."

Hermione was on her feet now and, apparently wasn't done yelling. "I got your brother killed! I'm the one who convinced both of you to take Harry's vision with a grain of salt. If we hadn't of hesitated we would have gotten there in time and..." she gestured wildly, almost violently.

Ron grabbed her flailing arms and stilled her motion and forced her to look at him. "And we could have all died. We're 16, we can't fight the Death Eaters single handedly. We barely survived last time."

"How can you not blame me?"

"How can you blame you?"

She started crying again and threw her arms around his neck. Ron awkwardly returned the hug; he had yet to get used to when Hermione got emotional.

After a few minutes, when Hermione had run low on tears, she pulled back to say something but whatever it was quickly evaporated from her mind when she looked up into Ron's eyes and how close they were standing seemed to matter all the more.

Ron must have noticed too, she decided based on the way he gulped and his Adams apple bobbed.

"Um, Hermione..." He began to pull back to a comfortable distance but Hermione held him in place by tightening her arms, which were still around his neck.

They were at a crossroad. Either one of them was going to start hyperventilating and preserve their friendship or...

Hermione moved closer and brushed her lips tentatively against Ron's. In this close proximity it was hard to tell which of them was shaking, but in all likelihood it was both of them, though neither would admit it. After the first tentative meeting of lips, instinct kicked in.

After the need for air became more and more paramount they pulled away.

Ron was the first to try and speak. "That was... that was..."

"Brilliant?" Hermione supplied helpfully, causing both of them to laugh.

"Yeah it was." There was another lull, that wasn't altogether comfortable, as they searched for what to say next. "So...um... now what?"

"Well, we could pretend it never happened—" she was glad when he looked truly affronted by this suggestion, "or you could ask me a question."

Ron looked puzzled by this last suggestion a mulled over it while Hermione waited as patiently as she could. 'Girls are so cryptic! What question could I possibly have to ask her after – Oh.'

"Um, Hermione?"

"Yes, Ron?"

'I really hope this is the question I'm supposed to be asking, otherwise I'm screwed.' "Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

From her squeal of delight and the way she once again threw her arms around his neck, he could tell he'd picked the right question and sighed with relief. "Of course I will!"

As they started to head back, hand in hand, they both thought of where they were going back to. At the same time they said, "Maybe we shouldn't tell Harry."

They both stopped and looked at each other and both started to explain.

"He'd just use it to distance himself from us more."

"We should be able to be happy about this and if he finds out we'll spend all our time trying to make him happy for us so we could be happy."

"Besides, sneaking around could be fun."

"Did you say we shouldn't tell Harry?" they both asked, having realized that they were explaining the same side of an argument.

"I think that's the most boring fight we've ever had," Ron commented with a smirk.

"I'll be sure to take the opposite stand next time."

"Nah, I kind of like being on the same side," he then leaned down and kissed her again before they headed back to the Gryffindor common room and pretended like nothing had happened.

The End


End file.
